You can’t always rely in the summer for good weather, but you can turn an outside space into a vibrant hot spot through clever use of plants. Creating a tropical patio or turning a corner of your garden into a little slice of Paradise is fun and rewarding and not nearly so difficult as it sounds.

Getting Started
You’ll need pots with saucers beneath them to hold moisture. Big containers are best because they dry out less quickly and plants like bananas will grow more vigorously in a larger space.

Use a loam-based compost, something like John Innes No 3. These are hungry plants that need feeding frequently.

Scottish Gardener:

Permanent Planting
Big leaves and bright flowers are the stand-out features of tropical plants. But to create the look, not all of your planting needs hot conditions. Use hardy plants that can survive outside all year round to form the backdrop to your deck or patio. Fatsias and large-leafed hostas fit the bill and both can stand a bit of shade, so use these to create a lush backdrop.

Summer stars
The Japanese banana, Musa basho, is the hardiest of the bananas, so is best suited to growing in Scotland.  The pineapple flower, Eucomis, isn’t actually a pineapple, but its tuft of flowers give it an exotic appearance that’s in keeping with the theme. The bird of Paradise flower (Strelizia), like the Swiss cheese plant and the yukka, is one of those houseplants that can happily spend the summer out of doors.

Scottish Gardener:

Brilliant Colour
Begonias are tropical plants and their bright colours and exuberance are just what’s needed. Dahlias, from Mexico, will keep flowering for many months. Peace lilies thrive in a warm, damp climate but place these in a shadier spot to prevent them from scorching. Use the bright annual climber, Thunbergia, along with Passion flowers, to scramble up a trellis.

Maintenance
Big leaves loose moisture fast during spells of hot weather, so keep plants well-watered and remove spent flowers and yellow leaves as they occur. Grouping plants in pots together will help to maintain a beneficial microclimate and sitting pots in saucers of damp gravel will help to maintain humidity around the foliage.

At the end of the season move tender plants under cover, dig up and store dahlia and begonia tubers in trays of slightly-damp compost and wrap bananas that are too large to move indoors in layers of fleece.